So I recently bought a Sig P938 (micro 1911). It is an amazing little gun. Shooting at a 9 inch steel plate from 10 yards as fast as I could pull the trigger, I had a 1 - 2 inch grouping. At 15 yards it was 2 - 3 inches. The trigger is F___king unreal. I’m a dyed in the wool Glock guy so the 1911 platform is a mystery to me. Therefore I need advice.
Here’s my question. How do I draw and shoot this gun? Do I click the safety off as my hand clutches the gun then draw, extend, and shoot? Or do I draw, extend, click the safety off and then shoot? I have it in an OWB at about 3:30.
I click the safety off as I extend and leave my thumb on the safety depressing downward as a point of contact. Fire. As I withdraw the gun I move my thumb to the underside of the safety and click it on before holstering.
When I was shooting competition with my 1911 the sequence was: when you made contact with the grip the gun and stated your draw your finger entered the trigger guard at about 15-20 degrees of your draw, your left hand made contact at 45 degrees and safety was disengaged. You then were putting 2 pounds of pressure on the trigger and as your front sight broke the plane of the target you added that extra 1/2 or 1 pound or so and the gun fired. It took me 500 plus draws with snap caps to perfect this. I can’t tell you how many discharges occurred until I got it right. Thank God they were snap caps. I didn’t get my instructions from instructors but from competitors who successfully shot the steel challenge and Bianchi cup competitions.
There are 4 positions when drawing your gun.
The first is getting a good grip.
the second is drawing the gun out of the holster.
The third is the in close ready. This is just before you extend your arms. As you transfer from 2 to 3 this is when you place your fingers on the trigger and take it off of the safe position and your other hand joins in for support because you have your gun pointed toward the intended target and you can even shoot from position 3 if your target is too close.
Fourth is the extended arms and shooting.
My EDC has a 1911 style thumb safety. I’ve never been taught a “correct” way to draw/disengage, but my natural, and safe-feeling movement is to disengage safety as I’m rotating the gun forward having fully cleared the holster, but long before it’s in firing position. It’s kind of one smooth motion. Four fingers grab the grip and start withdrawing the gun from the holster, as my thumb moves around behind the slide and into position down the left side of the gun. As my thumb is dropping into firing position, it sweeps the safety down and my support hand is now coming into position.
I did practice it a few hundred times in slow motion, and it’s the same whether I am wearing IWB or OWB, always at 3:00 strong side.
Drawing process and adding all additional movements and actuating safety levers are very personal.
However there’s a simple, but very important rule.
Your safety goes off when you are ready to shoot and you are 100% sure your muzzle is pointing at eventual threat / target.
What does it mean? It depends on the situation. If you are engaging target at 3 - 5 feet or so, you can actually shoot from retention, so your safety should be off after you clear the holster and your muzzle is about 45 degrees, pointing at threat’s / target’s legs or pelvic area.
If you shoot longer distances, safety goes off split second later, when the muzzle is actually pointing the general direction toward the threat or target.
When you done shooting, safety always goes on the moment you decide - no more shots needed, regardless of where the muzzle points.
Not if you keep your all hardware in consistent setup.
Thumb safety is made in so natural place, that there’s no way to not turn it on /off during draw process… Oh … Perhaps you can do it if you don’t have the thumb…
Pistol thumb safety is definitely easier to operate than rifle safety… and I never met anyone who would complain about rifle safety…
That’s very true. I got so used to thumbing the safety while drawing, I still do it to make sure. My EDC is the ruger max9. The safety is exactly like my LC9S whick i carried for years
All of my full size service pistols & two of my carry pistols have no safety. I don’t know of any law enforcement unit that uses pistols with a safety. As long as the gun is holstered & you keep your snot hook out of the trigger housing after unholstering, you’re good
I’m guessing more agencies will adopt 2011 pistol soon.
Staccato came with the newer C model… which is kind of combination of C2 and CS, to meet requirements of duty pistol.
I hope this is the beginning of end of Glock era in USA. It’s really a time to start using fully American Made pistol.
I’m Ok with all of them but SCCY
However it’s hard to compare them to 2011 model. I’m glad agencies have chosen something reliable and easy to shoot. Duty pistol should be a “duty pistol”… not a “plastic toy”.
